Is this a new soshul experiment?

Thanks to a nonnie for the alert. Quick intro for those who didn’t hear yet: fledgling fanfic writer ZombieBella‘s fic Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number was found to be plagiarized directly from a book by Abby Wood called Twice Her Age. Discussion can be found on ADF and the gazebo.

Is it a soshul experiment? Really, we wonder. Look at the date:

Did someone just want to see if a new writer would be treated differently from Krismom?

Was she treated differently?

No one seems to be getting in the OP’s face on ADF. The gazebo is safe because they just sporked it recently anyway, so we don’t have to deal with the defensive reactions of people who pimped the hell out of the fic. Also, no one knew the author yet, so there’s nobody lamenting the loss of a friend. Mostly there’s a lot of jeering.

Plus the book sucked so Abby Wood deserved it, right?

Someone’s bound to bring up plagiarism in general tomorrow, or some Johnny-lags-behind will show up and ask “Whatever happened to that fic by ZombieBella?” and we’ll see if The Dead Horse™ (similar to The Baby Jesus™) comes up then.

The author gave her reason for things and “apologized”, although we’re totally ugly people for reporting her:

Do so many people really not know how to spell plagiarism? Or is “plaguerism” some new kind of pun to refer to the plague of it we seem to be experiencing?

Anyway, if it isn’t a soshul experiment, then could it be that someone saw the attention TVM got and wanted to cause a stir?

It could be completely unrelated to the recent problem. The timing is just odd. Who wakes up one day with no previous experience in the fandom and thinks, Mmm, snow day. HEY! I’ll just feed the kids and then copy a book word for word and make it into a Twilight fanfic!

This brings up an interesting question. When you find out a fic has been plagiarized, you have basically two options, right? Either report it quietly or post on one of the forums and tell everyone. (Obviously there’s a spectrum here.) But which is better? If you report it quietly, does the person just go do the same thing under a different name? It’s not like they were humiliated in public, after all. Then again, if you make a post and a bunch of people get involved, does it attract trolls who see it as win/win – they get praised at first, then lambasted if they’re discovered, but either way it’s attention?

On a darker note, is there something we need to do differently in this fandom to make this kind of behaviour unnecessary? Sure, attention seekers are everywhere in life. But this is a specific act, plagiarising published books.

Do you feel like it’s hard to make friends in the fandom if you don’t actually have a fic of your own?
Is the adoration lavished on authors du jour so overblown that it makes people desperate for that kind of spotlight? Everyone wants Twitter followers that call them Goddess, right?

This was posted on her page:
“I am sorry. I didn’t mean to steal, but the story was so good. My husband is always busy and my children cry a lot and I just wanted to make some friends and feel important 😦

Thank you for the nice reviews, they made me so happy. The last people who reported me and reviewed me, I hope you feel good about yourselves. You are nasty, ugly people.

I’m sorry to Abby Wood, as well.”

I think she’s totally punking us, lol. Plagiarise then leave that note….. you’re asking to be discussed in this fandom, in fact I’d say begging, lol.

And now this one. I’m starting to think that maybe she isn’t well.
“My children are very depressed. They are 18 and their father wouldn’t let them go to the King’s of Leon concert. They cry all the time. People call my daughter ugly and say she looks like she’s eaten lemons! How dare you!

My husband is on a nasal cannula. He is 66. I have to bathe him and look after my children’s.

When you have an impotent husband and ugly, depressed children, you can come and be nasty!”

I’m confused about the whole thing.
1- I think that reviewer is genuine (scary thought) if you go back she has left other reviews for that story.
2 -Now the author I’m thinking two things.
Either
a) She has mental health issues I’m not saying that in a jokey way those A/N things seemed way off.
or
b) Does anyone else think the writing in the A/N reads like a kids writing. Maybe 15/16 I don’t know just the phrasing seems off. I’m wondering if it’s some kid messing around who has created a fake on line profile. But then the awkward writing could be reflecting her mental state if she’s unwell.
This whole thing is weird, lol.

Reminds me a bit of another author who shall remain unnamed who wrote a very controversial abuse fic and it was all ok because she’d been married a long time and her husband was ill and she was still in her marriage. Incest and abuse in her story shouldn’t be something she’s criticized for, see? No blame, no shame, just a sexy story, not a sick story.

Seems like we’re seeing an interesting little redux of fandom trope here. Maybe she’ll post for someone to please send her kids KoL tickets for St. Patrick’s day gifts.

I don’t have an answer why they keep doing this. This one looked like a troll but why? Was it to make fun of the trend or really to get attention?

Definitely we’ve agreed this fandom is cliquey tho, so I can see someone feeling like they could never write a good enough story to be popular. But then I don’t agree that all the popular stories are good eithe r.

People cheat in real life to get ahead, so it’s not surprising, but you wouldn’t think fanfic would be important enough to cheat over.

To answer your questions:Do you feel like it’s hard to make friends in the fandom if you don’t actually have a fic of your own?
In many ways, yes. It seems better now, but I’ve been around awhile. I feel this can be the case, and it’s not helped by those who only seem to respond to their friends or other writers.Is the adoration lavished on authors du jour so overblown that it makes people desperate for that kind of spotlight?
So desperately wanting that attention is really sad, but it is so overblown I can see the draw. The level of attention and adoration some of these authors get is beyond ridiculous (and in some cases, fucking insane).